The present invention relates to a device connecting a bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine which produces a pull-out tube by passing a belt-shaped film through tube-forming means, while touching packaged matter with each attachment mounted at equal intervals on a feed conveyor and feeding the packaged matter inside the film tube, and which also seals and cuts the above-mentioned film tube along either a front-end or back-end reference line of each packaged matter in the direction of travel of the film tube, and a rotary-type vacuum packaging machine which forms vacuum-packed bodies by sequentially carrying packaged bodies produced from the packaging machine to the inside of a plurality of vacuum chambers rotating along an endless track, more particularly to sealing means for a bag mouth provided in the device.
The above-mentioned bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine is given the capability of automatically loading foodstuff, for example, inside a bag, and transferring the same successively, so that by connecting a rotary-type vacuum packaging machine after the packaging machine, it is possible to efficiently vacuum pack a packaged body produced by the bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine. In this case, a packaged body is not completely sealed by the bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine, a bag mouth being sealed after the air inside the bag is removed by the vacuum packaging machine. In heretofore Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-81310, there is disclosed a device which is capable of detecting, with a sensor, the bag mouth of each packaged body successively produced and transferred via a conveyor from a bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine, and, in addition, through such detection, of confirming a precise distance to a vacuum chamber, controlling transfer speed of a bag, and positioning the bag mouth precisely along an edge of a sealing mount in a vacuum chamber. However, there has been a problem that when transferring a packaged body from a carry-out conveyor to the vacuum chamber, the packaged body is transferred by dropping a predetermined drop, so that positioning every bag mouth exactly along the sealing mount is extremely difficult, entailing that a hot sealing mark is formed in a skewed condition at a bag opening edge, or the sealing mark being formed either deeply or shallowly relative to a bag opening edge, causing reduction in commercial value of a finished product.
To do away with the above-mentioned problem, the present invention provides a device for producing a pull-out tube by passing a belt-shaped film through tube-forming means, while touching a packaged matter with each attachment mounted at equal intervals on a feed conveyor and pushing the matter inside a film tube, and sealing and cutting the film tube along a back-end reference line of each packaged matter in a direction of travel of the film tube, and thereafter, carrying each packaged body onto a surface plate which moves at equal intervals and composes a part of a vacuum chamber, wherein the device comprises: an adjustable conveyor installed in front of a movement area of the surface plate; means for detecting the front end traveling pitch of each packaged matter, and means for detecting a traveling pitch of each surface plate; a device for detecting the displacement of a packaged matter front end relative to each surface plate pitch by way of comparison between detected values by these two means; means for controlling speed of the adjustable conveyor according to a signal sent out from the displacement detecting device such that the front end of the packaged body is positioned along a sealing mount of a surface plate; and a cutter installed inside the vacuum chamber so as to sever a bag mouth of the packaged body along the sealing mount.
Further, the present invention provides a device for producing a pull-out tube by passing a belt-shaped film through tube-forming means, while touching a packaged matter with each attachment mounted at equal intervals on a feed conveyor and pushing the matter inside the film tube, and sealing and cutting the film tube along a front-end reference line of each packaged matter in a direction of travel of the film tube, and thereafter, carrying each packaged body onto a surface plate which moves at equal intervals and composes a part of a vacuum chamber, wherein the device comprises: an adjustable conveyor installed in front of a movement area of the surface plate; means for detecting a back end traveling pitch of each packaged matter, and means for detecting a traveling pitch of each surface plate; a device for detecting a displacement of a packaged matter back end relative to each surface plate pitch by way of comparison between detected values by these two means; means for controlling the speed of the adjustable conveyor according to a signal output from the displacement detecting device such that the back end of the packaged body is positioned along the sealing mount on a surface plate; and a cutter installed inside the vacuum chamber so as to sever a bag mouth of the packaged body along the sealing mount.
Since either the front end or back end of packaged matter inside the packaged body transferred from the bag forming-filling-sealing-packaging machine as mentioned above is picked up by detecting means, the distance to the sealing mount of the surface plate is confirmed and speed of the packaged body is controlled by the adjustable conveyor, and the packaged body is transferred to the surface plate such that either the front end or back end of the packaged matter is contiguous to the sealing mount, and because a head space inside a bag can be made small and, in addition, an excess part of the bag mouth can be severed by a cutter along the sealing mount, the bag can be made free of any displacement and skewing along its mouth edge and in its sealed portion.